Wine
Trishna’s unique cuisine calls for wine of equal character. Our general manager and sommelier, Leo Kiem, goes to great lengths to offer inspired pairings and some truly diverse wines from niche producers and boutique wineries all over the world. And for those who argue that Indian food calls for a nice cold beer, a specialist selection of beers including Indian and European varieties completes the selection.
Why drink wine?
Or to be more specific why drink wine with Indian food? It is not obligatory, even for wine lovers. Most of us would cringe at the thought of wine with Indian food and would prefer a beer, however no other alcoholic drink has the range of textures and weights that wine can offer. Indian food for example can be matched with medium-sweet whites such as Riesling “Bruchstuck” 2007 from the Pfalz region in Germany, chilled African Chenin Blanc from Winery Road, 2007; perfect balanced Pinot Blanc Schoffit, 2004 from Alsace, or a refreshing, crisp and zesty glass of Louis Roederer non-vintage champagne. Or did you ever think of emphasizing the heat of chilies’ and spices with a tannic Barolo from Burlotto,2004; or with deep flavored reds such as Chteauneuf-du-Pape Grand Veneur,2004; Ben Glaetzers Bishop Shiraz, 2006; from Australia or a powerful and full bodied Valpolicella Amarone from Guerrieri Rizzardi, 2004?
Choices, choices, choices…It seems to be complicated? Only if you see all this as a problem rather than a opportunity to discover something new.
Food and wine matching is all about enjoyment and therefore we are having great fun creating such an exciting wine offer for you. The wine list is designed to amuse, stimulate and, just possibly, make you look at Indian food and wine matches in a new light.
Matching Indian Food with Wine, Impossible???
As already mentioned in our previous newsletter, among Asian Food, Indian food in particular has the greatest notoriety for being hard to match with wine.
Besides that and disagreeing with this myth Leo Kiem started to explore and analyse Indian food in depth in order to choose the right wines for our list. The long term aim was in fact to prove that no food is off-limit to wines and certainly to provide our customers with a pleasant and enjoyable experience at Trishna. What we’ve discovered will be discussed over the next few months in our monthly published newsletter and we hope that we can provide our readers with interesting facts and exciting, imaginative new food-wine matches.
...every Indian dish begins with a blend of spices and the perception that wine is predominately a western discovery. It was and still is hard for us to convince our guests to be more experimental when it comes to wine recommendations, preferences and choices. The challenge in the first place was to analyse which spices warm up with which wine.
As one could have guessed nutmeg, turmeric, black pepper, ginger, garlic, coriander, chilli, mustard seeds, cumin, bay leaves, cloves and cinnamon were the main spices identified.
The next step was to subdivide Indian food into flavour groups, all based on the detail that Indian cuisine uses spice combinations in their preparations of Masala’s, Tikkas and Curries.
1. Simple spice Dishes that rely on just a few spices, at most three, as seasoning.
2. Pakora’s, deep fried dishes relying on rice and potato flour and most of the time infused with spices, such as coriander and chillies.
3. Light flavoured dishes such as fish tikka, prawns with mustard spice based , lobster, lamb chops and so on
4. Green and fresh herb based dishes with fresh greens or herbs as a primary ingredient, such as the coriander and mint based Hariyali Bream, Spinach and dill....
5. Tandoori. Marinated meats which have been cooked in a clay oven, e.g Coastal spiced poussin with mint and coriander chutney.
6. Heavily spiced and saucy dishes, such as fish and lamb curries.
All of this is just a little taste of what to come over the next few months, as it was and still is only a matter of discovery matched with a series of trials and errors before we have the appreciated combination.
Leo Kiem
GM & Wine Buyer
“The realm of delicious matches is only limited to your imagination”
